Kawakami: Raiders are in Oakland, but for how long?

OAKLAND -- Mark Davis is where he wants to be, and he makes that abundantly clear.

In the Coliseum. Running the Raiders. Trying to repair and renovate two institutions that have seen much, much better days.

But Al Davis' son needs a better roster, which the Raiders owner has put into the hands of general manager Reggie McKenzie and coach Dennis Allen.

And, heading into the Raiders' final year on their most recent lease with the aging Coliseum, the team's owner needs a long-term home for his franchise.

He and the Raiders are here now. Where will they be next season and into the long-term future?

"What I would like to do is build (a new stadium) right here and start breaking ground tomorrow," Davis told me near the Raiders sideline about an hour before Friday night's exhibition loss to the Bears.

The point is this: With stadium free agency beckoning, Davis is setting an unofficial countdown, either to get this done in Oakland or to move on.

We'll see if it jump-starts talks in Oakland, if he keeps to it, and what he might do if the Coliseum redo concept continues to lag.

Is the possibility of sharing the 49ers' new Santa Clara stadium starting in 2014 definitely out of the question now?

"For me, I would say it probably is," Davis said.

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In fact, all indications are that Davis has never been in favor of moving into the 49ers' stadium, despite the NFL's wishes; his father was always more open to that option (if all other options were worse) than Mark has been.

So, Mark, is Los Angeles on your mind?

"Always," Davis said. "An opportunity for us to get a new stadium is always on my mind.

"Oakland is first, OK? That's all I can say."

The most likely short-term option, though, is extending the lease in Oakland. "It's a very good possibility," Davis said.

But there's nothing close to a deal so far, one more complication in an extremely tricky time for this franchise.

Right now, the team's on-field prospects for 2013 don't look so bright, the current Coliseum situation puts the Raiders at the bottom of the NFL revenue list, and Davis is searching for a new CEO to replace Amy Trask.

Everything's so deeply in flux that when I talk to heavy hitters in the league, they wonder: What does Mark Davis really want to do?

Here, he's laying it out: Davis wants the Raiders to win, and he wants it all to happen in a brand-new stadium, planned, financed and built ASAP.

Or else?

Davis has sounded the alarm before. But with the 49ers' new stadium set to open next year and his ownership in its second full season, Davis obviously is feeling the pressure to settle this once and for all.

"Listen, we're talking with the city and the county all the time," Davis said. "And we have another meeting coming up shortly. And we'll see where that goes."

Does he want to do another short-term extension like the last one, which was for three years?

"That doesn't seem to be something that I want to do," Davis said. "I don't see where that does any good.

"If you go back and look at when we did the three-year extension last time, and you look at the quotes from the politicians and the people around, they said, 'Great, now we've got an opportunity to work on a long-term deal with the Raiders.'

"If we do it again, then it's, 'Great, now we've got a long time to work on a long-term deal with the Raiders.' I think we've got to get a little more urgency about it."

Two weeks ago, Davis told a few media members that playing on the A's dirt infield through the baseball season was "a travesty."

On Friday, though, Davis shrugged when I brought it up.

"I don't think you can change the dirt with the A's," Davis said. "That's just something that we have to live with.

"That's a deal that we made. When we moved back here, we knew we were going to play on it. So we can't complain about it."

Meanwhile, I've heard that Davis and his mother recently bought out a limited partner to lift their stake in the team above 50 percent; Davis wouldn't comment when I asked.

And what does Davis think about the prospects for his team this season?

"I don't really comment on it," Davis said. "Right now, we're still trying to find the 53-man roster. I want to win. That's it. That's all I want to do.

"It's going to be a process. We're going through that process. We had a lot to clean up."

There's a lot more to do -- with the roster, on the field, and for the owner, who knows where he wants to be. He just has to figure out how to build what he wants to build.